Morning in the garden

Each of these photos can be viewed large-size.

The color of this flower is striking and all the more beautiful with morning dew

I don't know what these are called, but I love the soft, fuzzy leaves

Looking down at one of the newest bean transplants

this tropical hasn't received the memo that it's November. i'm happy about that.

this catches the life and death of Lobelia

the green pepper plant has over twenty good-sized peppers

this broccoli plant is loving the cooler mornings

the alyssum is blooming incredibly - here you see an emerging flower

I love the close-up texture of the beans

no, this is not a candy mushroom, although it looks dipped in sugar!

Macro Monday – a day late

Yeah, that’s how I roll. A day late and a dollar short. At any rate, here are a few macro shots I took of mother nature this past Sunday. The honeybees were really loving the cuphea, with three or four bees feeding at any given time. I managed to catch a few pics of a butterfly as it landed to lap up the sweet alyssum nectar, too.

a winged friend visits the sweet alyssum

Cuphea and the Bee

I endured some fire ant bites trying to capture a couple good pictures of a couple of bees who visited the cuphea this evening.

And this little guy visited the sweet alyssum:

Garden addition: Cuphea and Lantana

I was at Home Depot today picking up some lumber for the additional garden beds, and I stopped to smell the flowers.  Even inside of the covered area of the garden section, I found several honeybees buzzing in and around a group of flowers on display.  I thought – excellent, this is what I need to draw more beneficial insects to the garden area.  I looked several over and chose a large Cuphea shrub and two smaller Lantana plants.

cuphea hyssopifolia, false heather

This shrub variety of Cuphea is native to Mexico, so I’m sure that it will do well here in the Texas climate.

yellow Lantana

The Lantana were root bound, so I replanted them both in a large pot.  For now, I have placed both plants along the East side of the house because it is protected from the late afternoon sun.  When the weather gets cooler, I’ll move them out by the squashes and cukes to increase the likelihood of them being pollinated by bees, butterfly and possibly hummingbird – the later of which really loves the Cuphea.  We already have seen hummingbird feeding on the Hibiscus nectar, so I’m sure this will be an appreciated addition to their diet.

Today, I drew up the plans for the additional beds, which will contain three types of lettuce, two types of carrots, spinach and broccoli.  As I have it figured out, I have about three feet to grow lettuce, two feet for carrots, and two feet for spinach.  I’ll build another three foot by three foot bed for the broccoli.

sketch of garden plan

I should be able to get at least sixteen lettuce plants in their section, which I will sow successively rather than all at one time.  I should also be able to plant sixty plus carrots, nine broccoli and twenty plus spinach.

It doesn’t look like I’m going to get to building the beds today like I had hoped.  I have all the materials I need and the dirt and seeds, so I guess it can wait.  I can work on them throughout the week.  In the meantime, I have already started some lettuce seeds (nine of each variety above).  I’m going to let them grow 4-6 weeks before I put them out in the beds.  At that time, I’ll also sow the carrots and spinach.